Briardust's Light
by Briardust
Summary: As a young RiverClan warrior, Briardust is happy- she's got everything she needs. But it is missing something. Watch her find her missing thing. Her purpose. Her light.
1. Apologies

**Sorry! Turns out that I had already started the project and forgotten about it, so I will be deleting the original story that I'm posting this on (well, the chapter)!**

 **Thanks for understanding!**

 **Briar**


	2. Chapter 1

Briarkit stumbled out into the light, tripping over her white paws onto Morningkit, face falling into her orange pelt.

"Hey! Briarkit, get off! We're seeing the camp for the first time!"

With a shock, Briarkit realized her sister was right. She looked up, up, and around. One moon old, and she had never seen the camp before! Tall trees sheltered the camp, and the floatable dens looked exciting and comfortable.

"Yikes! It's so big!"

Briarkit turned to see her sister, Lilykit, looking up at the camp's features with her round blue eyes. All ready they were tinted with green, like her's and Morningkit's. Fishkit's were gray.

Speaking of which, Fishkit popped out behind his sisters, sniffing nervously as his light brown tabby pelt slipped out.

Briarkit turned her attention to her paws- well, what was beneath it, anyways. The dirt here saw slightly softer than in the nursery, though it was not much different- and the smells! She smelt vole, which she had secretly nibbled on before while Thornripple was looking away, and some sort of bird.

"Hello, kits." Said a deep, unknown voice. Briarkit hurried to Fishkit, Morningkit, and Lilykit's side and gazed up at the newcomer.

He was a tall, muscular dark orange/brown tabby with dark brown eyes. He started down at them and chuckled.

"Which one of you is which? I'm Tigerbound, by the way, your mother's brother." The kits relaxed immediately. Fishkit stuck out his chest. "I'm-"

"Fishkit" Tigerbound interrupted. "You're the only tom" he explained when Fishkit looked flabbergasted. Lilykit chuckled. "And who are you?" He asked, turning to her, and she grew somber at once.

"I'm Lilykit." she said, puffing out her chest. "That's great. Now can we hurry this up? Fireberry is leading the afternoon border patrol, and she'll see the end of me if I miss it." The tom's eyes twinkled.

Morningkit stepped forward, her orange pelt catching the sun. "I'm Morningkit, and this is Briarkit. We've heard about you… you're clan deputy, aren't you?" But before he could answer, there was a call from a vibrantly orange tabby with sandy gray eyes who was looking annoyed, who was standing by the small tunnel in the swaying reeds that sheltered the camp.

"Tigerbound! Stop talking to Thornripple's kits!"

"Coming, Fireberry!" Tigerbound turned back to the littermates one last time.

"See you all later, then." Smiling, he bounded away.


	3. Chapter 2

Briarkit pounced on the leaf as it spiraled down before leaping into Morningkit. Fishkit barreled onto them, and Lilykit soon joined. They tussled, mewing and laughing.

"Kits! Come in, or you'll freeze to death!" Thornripple's worried mew rang across the clearing. The kits sighed and trudged back into the warm nursery just as it started to rain.

How familiar everything seemed! The arching nursery walls, bracken and bramble branches arching over her head, dock leaves sheeting holes as rain softly padded outside on the fern screen swishing in light wind.

And her mother. Thornripple was beautiful, there was no other word. Her slightly light tabby pelt was smooth and rippling, green eyes sparkling, even with the rain dulling the light, and her soft white circle-underbelly gleaming, along with her flicking tail-tip.

Briarkit look a little farther back to see Sunfeather, a golden-and-white she-cat with amber eyes and a very large belly. She had come in half a moon after Thornripple, Thornripple said, and so she was expecting soon. She gazed happily at the little kits.

The ferns at the entrance swished, and Briarkit jumped and turned around to see a massive brown tabby with glowing blue eyes march into the den, along with a vole, a shrew, and a fat, plump squirrel. He dropped the vole and shrew near Sunfeather and the squirrel by Thornripple.

Briarkit was confused. This was not her father, Thistlefur, whose brown/black tabby pelt shone against amber eyes, constantly glowing- and it was not Tigerbound, either.

The strange tom caught her calculating and sneaky glances thrown every two seconds and chuckled. "Sunfeather, introduce me?"

"Oh!" Sunfeather smiled and padded up to Briarkit. "This is Briarkit. Briarkit, meet Brackenstorm, my mate and father to my kits."

Why did she have to say that? Briarkit wondered. Wouldn't the mate of a cat bear its kits? But her small mind let it go like a leaf to the wind, and she quickly moved on as Pebbleblossom, a tortoiseshell with white paws and green eyes that took the post of medicine cat, marched in.

"I've come to check up on you, Sunfeather. You can't hide!" Her joking manner relaxed Briarkit immediately, which made it easy for Lilykit to pounce. "Hey!" Briarkit tussled with her sister, with a white pelt that sported brown splotches on her back and speckles on her paws and one brown front left toe.

Meanwhile, Sunfeather and Pebbleblossom's eyes got wide, and Sunfeather let ut an ear piercing screech, and Brackenstorm was unceremoniously shoved out of the nursery, and Briarkit was grabbed by her scruff along with Lilykit to her mother's nest with the other kits as Sunfeather started to give birth.


	4. Chapter 3

"So, we won't be able to pounce on them?" Lilykit's curious voice rang out loud inside the den, the quiet patter of rain not even close to drowning her out. They had been waiting, day after day, to see Sunfeather's kits, and finally, after a week, they would meet them, though with eyes closed, for the first time.

"Come on, Lilykit! Why so intent?" Morningkit's said.

Sunfeather and Thornripple chuckled, muttering something about 'so young' and 'so serious', but Briarkit hardly took notice. It was time to meet the kits!

Thornripple guided her kits, bounciness and rambunctiousness deserted, and showied them the new life tucked into her friend's belly.

Branchkit was white, with black spots- Petalkit was the image of her mother- but Sweetkit was a mix of none of the above, showing off her father's silky pelt with added-on white paws. When Fishkit saw Lilykit, his ears perked, and Briarkit almost laughed aloud to see the apparent beauty shining as a shimmering reflection in her brother's eyes. This was going to be fun.


	5. Chapter 4

**Two in one day! But I'm making them short, so…**

"Briarpaw! Fishpaw! Morningpaw! Lilypaw!"

Briarpaw looked around as the Clan cheered her name, and looked over at her mentor. Fireberry, who had called over Tigerbound the first day they met, was gazing at her from brown/green/blue eyes, orange pelt flashing. Fishpaw huddled nervously next to Whitefoot, a large, muscled white tom with glowing amber eyes, and looked jealously over at Lilypaw with Tigerbound, her new mentor. Morningpaw ran over to Briarpaw from Brackenstorm's side, bouncing up and down in excitement while her now completely green eyes flashed.

"Briarpaw! We're apprentices now!"

As Briarpaw lay in her new nest that night next to Leapordpaw and Frogpaw, along with her littermates. She felt a fresh ping of excitement. Who knew what the future held? A mate, possibly even kits? She slipped herself into a deep sleep, never knowing what was to come.

The world whirled- it sucked her into a whirlpool of shapes and sounds. Images started flashing in front of her- so many images, her head spun as much as her vision had a moment ago.

She was in the nursery, suckling two toms and a she-kit- no, two she-kits and a tom- she was leaping into battle, sitting on a dawn-washed rock with her tail entwined with a silhouetted figure's, she was sitting with a old tom, herself old, proudly watching a black she-cat with small white spots be named deputy, then she was younger and watching the first pair of kits she thought she had saw getting their warrior names- Hawkfeather, Eaglefrost, Ravenspots, destined to be deputy… it was all a blur.

She was in pain, she was stifled in heat, she was ripped open by enemy claws- and then it all rewound, reeling back to younger Briars, until she was named her warrior name that remained indistinguishable- now she was tussling with other cats in battle- now she was asleep in her den, having a dream that would change her life.


End file.
